Evaluation of the effects of people registered to the family health center on the general health screening and health perception

Objective: Health literacy (HL) has become an increasingly important concept all over the world. Determining the health literacy level of the society is the most important step to be taken to improve health literacy. In our study, we aimed to determine the health literacy level and related factors of the participants and to evaluate the effect of HL level on health perception and health screening. Materials-Methods: The population of the study was composed of 300 individuals between the ages of 18-65 registered with 5 different Family Health Centers. The survey included socio-demographic data, questions that assess general literacy status, questions that measure participation in cancer screenings and other preventive medicine recommendations, European Health Literacy Survey (HLS-EU) and Health Perception Scale (HPS). The SPSS 20 program was used for statistical analysis and p<0.05 value was considered significant. Results: The mean age of the participants was 39.1±12.9, 53% were women, 76.7% were married, 31% were housewives, 35% were university graduates. The level of HL individuals participate in the study was 31.07±7.61 and corresponds to the 'problematic-limited' HL level. The HL level of the participants was compared with the sociodemographic variables. It was determined that the HL level was higher in young people, singles, people with higher education and income levels (p<0.001). The mean HPS score of the participants found to be 48.83±8.85 and it was noted that the HL level showed a positive correlation with the health perception (r=0,445; p=0,001). In addition, it was determine that the level of health literacy didn't have a significant effect on individuals' screening for breast, cervical and colon cancer, but it had a positive effect on getting flu vaccination every year and going to dentist control once a year (p <0.05). Discussion-Conclusion: It was determined that 61.7% of the participants HL was inadequate or limited-problematic. Turkey Health Literacy Research and a study including eight European countries reported that HL of participants is either inadequete or limited problematic with 64.6% and 47.6%, respectively. The results obtained from our study showed that inadequate HL is a universal problem. Key Words: Health Literacy, Health Screenings, Health Perception, Family Health Center